Bengal-based media house The Telegraph, in full display of casteism, has shown its hate for the Dalits. In an article on ex-CJI Ranjan Gogoi’s nomination to Rajya Sabha by the President, The Telegraph compared him to ‘covid’.
“Kovind, not Covid, did it’, the headline read. Covid-19 is a pandemic, a coronavirus disease which has impacted lakhs of people globally as of this moment. In its bid to make a wordplay on President’s name by comparing it to the deadly virus, The Telegraph just hit a new low.
Read: Model-actress and cancer survivor Lisa Ray exposes Telegraph for inherent sexism
Netizens pointed out how President Ramnath Kovind is a Dalit by caste and comparing him to the virus would be an insult to the Dalits who have been facing years of oppression in India. They expressed disappointment at the way the President was targeted.
Dirty and cheap @ttindia ! Shame!
— ANAND (@bvanand24) March 17, 2020
How can you sarcastically compare my president @rashtrapatibhvn with a virus? Becos my president comes from dalit background? @VPSecretariat @PMOIndia pl lock down this @ttindia & arrest the editor under SCST Atrocious act! . Cc; @AmitShah
@TwitterIndia targetted harassment by this verified news outlet @ttindia in a bad manner against the president of India, @rashtrapatibhvn who is a "Dalit". I have already reported this tweet, please have a look. Very unfortunate and sad to see such a low-level propaganda article.
— Vishal Telangre (@suruwat) March 17, 2020
Even as twitterati expressed shock at the horrifying insult to the President, there were others who deemed the headline which insults Dalits ‘brilliant’. Faulty ‘fact-checker’ AltNews Director Nirjari Sinha thought this insult to the Dalits is ‘bold and brilliant’.
Once again, bold and brilliant @ttindiahttps://t.co/blZwxpCxnW pic.twitter.com/XbIt3dTwOM
— Nirjhari Sinha (@NirjhariSinha) March 17, 2020
Aam Aadmi Party leader Prithvi Reddy too called President Kovind a ‘virus’ which is ‘more dangerous’.
It's another kind of virus, definately more dangerous !!!
— Prithvi Reddy (@aapkaprithvi) March 17, 2020
It is no longer discreet or done behind close doors . It's now open and in your face !
Kovind, not Covid, did it https://t.co/MtprdL3nHk
The Telegraph takes pride in ‘in your face’ headlines except when it comes to reporting on things happening in its own backyard in West Bengal. The Telegraph is more of an advocacy group than an actual media organization. During the elections, its editor had claimed in an article removing Narendra Modi from power was the only hope for India’s redemption. This is not how a news organization functions or is supposed to function.
If The Telegraph concerned itself more with journalistic integrity and chose to ally itself more with truth instead of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), its standards will without a doubt improve drastically. But it appears the editors of the newspaper will be more willing to accompany Frodo Baggins to Mordor than that. In the meantime, journalism will continue to suffer. Perhaps, The Telegraph can find its spine in Mamata Banerjee’s purse.
